I would really, seriously consider talking to a few people in the neighborhood, especially if you hate HOAs that much. You’re probably right that it won’t be an issue, but I’d double (and triple) check.
miss elizabeth
a fellow HOA hater
Our HOA fees are the princely sum of $40 per year. It’s mandatory, but the HOA has no money with which to retain a lawyer to sue non-payers, so it’s basically voluntary.
The fees mainly cover the taxes, maintenance and decoration of the two entry lots.
Yes, within easy walking distance. Belle Haven Blvd. is right across the GW Parkway from the Belle Haven Marina. As you head away from the parkway on Belle Haven, the townhouse community in the article is on your left between the GW Parkway and Fort Hunt Rd.
Our HOA is pretty laid back too. Our fees are getting close to $100, but still in double digits. We have a ballfield where kids can play softball, soccer, and whatnot, plus a basketball court, and the HOA fees maintain these things plus the sidewalk that runs most of the length of the main street through the neighborhood, and a small patch of land and a sign at the entrance to the neighborhood. There aren’t many retirees in our neighborhood, and the folks on the HOA board aren’t interested in being busybodies.
Maybe until you get in the situation and end up next door to that purple house when you’re trying to sell yours. Or that rusty car just inches from your property line. I have also heard of horror stories of HOA but I’ve lived in neighborhoods without them that quickly decline the year the builders move on.
This mornings I was notsopatiently waiting for my daughter to drive her to school and was taking a walk around my property. I noticed the house across the street and over one has paint peeling off the side of their house with big unpainted patches. I am sure the HOA is on top of this. I would hate to live in a neighborhood that your home value could be brought down because someone is too lazy to get up on a ladder with a brush and a bucket of paint.
Only the monster part.
Famous (locally) quaint townhouse tract in Vegas had a psycho HOA pres who would vandalize the homes, then fine the homeowners. A friend of mine who lived there set up CC cameras and filmed him wrecking the neighborhood. He was replaced by a different mob guy.
First new rule: no CC cameras allowed in the tract.
And I’d hate to live in a neighborhood where the nosy busybody across the street with nothing better to do actually had some authority to force me to accede to her outrageous demands about my own property. Different strokes.
I think if you are willing to live next door to other people, you have to be willing to live with whatever decisions they might choose to make. I don’t consider “it’ll drive down my property values” as a valid basis for running your neighbors’ lives.
Thanks, when I lived there, I didn’t know the local VA roads as I didn’t have a car. I lived in the District and frequently biked along the path that went from the bridge next to the Lincoln Memorial down along the west bank of the Potomac all the way to Mount Vernon. I used to stop at the marina’s shop for drinks and snacks, and eventually learned something about sailing and started renting their boats. I don’t think I ever crossed over the GW Parkway in all that time, so I was skirting past the eastern edge of this HOA without really being aware of it.
I can see your point. At the same time, you probably haven’t gotten into a feud with a neighbor and you probably aren’t the wrong color/religion/sexual orientation for the people on your HOA board. Some HOAs have used the rules to persecute the NOKD, and that shouldn’t be acceptable, because eventually you will be NOKD to someone.
I’m not pro or anti-HOA. They can certainly provide benefit by creating and maintaining public areas, but IMO, enforcement should be left to enforcement agencies.
Yep, that’s it. You may be able to amend the covenants but that procedure is a lot trickier than simply getting the board to pass something. I think that most newer HOAs in Northern Virginia do have the authority to fine people since HOAs have gotten a bit more rigid since that point in time.
I have to seriously wonder what any of these people were thinking. The statute in this case authorizes attorney’s fees. So at the end of the day, the HOA was responsible for the Plaintiff’s as well as their own. At some point, there must have been an election and a chance to get a new board.
This. I had a professor in a protracted battle with an HOA, in short, because they made a rule, or misapplied one, that screwed his retired mother out of something like 2-300K. The court ruled in his favor, but, still, he had the legal expense, etc… of dealing with a bunch of jr. Fuehrer’s.
Kinda related: When a neighborhood watch held an election in my neighborhood, the new ‘President’ or WTF they are called, sent out a circular to the neighborhood. (We always get these, even though we are not in the watch group, etc…) In it, he promised not to be too strict a ruler! (Or, something of the same substance.) If he was the head of a bunch of volunteer watchmen, with such an exalted opinion of himself and his power, you can just imagine how power would go to the heads of somebody who can actually control your house/property.